BEN West rewrote the record books for the second time in a month when he became the first Bicester runner to achieve a top-ten finish in the UK Inter-Country Cross Country Championships at Loughborough.

Representing Oxfordshire, the teenager finished seventh out of the 281 runners, who contested the under 17 men’s race run over 6km.

His time of 21mins 26secs was less than a minute behind winner Rory Leonard, from Morpeth Harriers.

This comes after West secured a top-ten finish in the national championships in London, which no Bicester runner had done before.

Significantly, he finished comfortably ahead of Milton Keynes’s Jack Meijer who had defeated him in the final Chiltern League cross country fixture.

The Bicester youngster, who finished fifth in the Cross Challenge standings, was Oxfordshire’s highest finisher in any age group and his placing helped the county team to 28th place in the under 17 race.

Clubmate Max Nicolle, contesting the under 15 boys race over a 4.5k course, came 124th out of the 303 finishers in 20.18.

Although not counting for the team, Edward Joliffe finished a creditable 226th in 21.39.

Oliver Conway, running in his first inter-counties event, came 141st out of the 309 finishers in the under 13 boys’ race run over 3k in 14.22.

Lucy McGrath, also making her bow in the under 13 girls’ race finished 215th.

l Snow and ice forced the final round of the Oxford Mail Cross Country League to be cancelled.

Following the recent inclement weather, organisers felt it was not be possible to run the event at Farmoor on March 4 in a “safe and timely manner”.

This has led to the final standings being determined from the first four rounds.

FINALSTANDINGS

Men - Vet 60: 2 R Kerr (Alc) 452. Under 15: 2 M Nicolle (Bic) 16.

Women – Vet 45: 2 S Usher (Alc) 74.

l Bicester AC’s David Kuester won five medals at the British Masters indoor winter throws event at Enfield.

Competing in the 70-plus age group, he collected three silvers and two bronzes.

Results

Hammer: 2nd 28.42m; shot: 2nd 8.72; discus: 3rd 23.06; heavy hammer: 2nd 10.53; javelin: 3rd 23.43.